Kael was breathing too fast not from the kiss,
not from the heat still rising off his skin like mist from molten stone but from the decision he made the moment her lips left his
He gripped her wrist not roughly but firmly
With the weight of duty tightening around his chest
Liora's eyes widened slightly amused, not surprised
"What are you doing" she asked
Her voice soft but sharp enough to cut silk
"You're under arrest" he said
And it didn't even sound real in his own ears
She tilted her head
"You're shaking"
He pulled her close and whispered
"There's a prison below the barracks
Dark
Silent
Forgotten"
She smiled against his cheek
"Sounds romantic"
He didn't answer
Couldn't
Not with her breath on his skin
Not with the memory of her lips still whispering through his blood
---
The cell was small with stone walls that had tasted too many secrets and chains rusted into the rock and a single torch that flickered like it feared her presence,Kael stood at the door watching her.
She didn't sit, didn't pace,
She leaned against the wall
Her hands resting in her lap
A queen in rags
Still untouchable
"You're dangerous" he said at last
"I am" she agreed
He paced back and forth trying to put space between her and the questions in his mind
Trying to bury the warmth she had stirred beneath his ribs
"What's your real name" he asked
"I told you" she said
"Liora"
"No
Your full name
Your bloodline
Who are you really"
She closed her eyes for a moment as if hearing music only she understood
"I am the flame the crown tried to extinguish"
She opened her eyes slowly
"And the kiss you can't stop remembering"
Kael clenched his fists
"You're toying with me"
She stood up and even in chains she moved like a shadow slipping through light
"I'm showing you who you are" she whispered
"I'm not the one trembling every time I speak your name"
Kael stepped closer, the torch crackled his voice was low
"You cast spells with words,
You bend minds like wind through branches
You speak like temptation"
She smiled again that maddening curve of lips that always made the world quieter
"I don't need spells to unravel you Kael
You're already unraveling"
He turned from her,
Anger,Fear and Desire all clawing inside him
"Why are you here" he asked
Finally
Seriously
"To remind this kingdom of its truth" she said
"To wake what they buried"
"And me" he asked
"Why me"
Liora stepped to the edge of her chains
Her eyes glowing softly in the firelight
"Because you were born between sword and silence
Because the world told you magic was death
But I see fire in you
Not destruction
But creation"
Kael's voice cracked
"You don't even know me"
"I kissed your soul Kael"
She whispered
"I know you better than anyone ever has"
---
He left the cell before he could do something stupid
Like kiss her again
Like set her free
But that night he couldn't sleep
Not in his quarters
Not in his armor
Not even inside his own thoughts
Because her voice was there
Her face
That kiss
And the unbearable truth
He wasn't guarding her anymore
She was inside him
And the chains on her wrists
Were nothing compared to the ones tightening around his heart